How to sew a detachable fur ruff to jacket hood

 

We often find ourselves skiing and running at sub-zero temperatures. Over the years, we've figured out our gear systems to keep our bodies, hands, and feet warm, but our faces have been a little trickier. After seeing a friend's solution---a fur ruff---we knew we had the solution. Fur ruffs aren't new, but we wanted to attach ours to a lightweight active layer that could be worn while skiing or running. This presented one obvious obstacle---what happens to the ruff when we wanted to wash the jacket? The solution was just as obvious, make a detachable ruff. A detachable system also allows the jacket to be interchangeable between multiple jackets.

After finding very little in the way of direction online, we came up with our own method (documented below).

The first "test" jacket was a Patagonia Nanopuff Hoody. This jacket lacks a bungee at the back of the head to adjust the hood fit, so we found the ruff placement needed to be very precise. Later iterations used a Sierra designs puffy (unknown model), Arc'teryx Proton LT, and Arc'teryx Atom LT, all of which have an adjustable hood. We found these types of hoods allowed for more forgiveness in the ruff placement and were generally preferable for adjust-ability.

Materials

Fur ruff (we used 2"x24" coyote fur with grosgrain attached)

Snap tape (we used 1/2" polyester with plastic snaps spaced ~1")

Sewing machine (or need/thread if hand sewing)

Thread (optional coordinating colors)

Scissors

Tailors chalk (or pencil, soluble marker)

Pins

 

Step 1: Sew the ruff into a tube.

Fold the ruff in half length-ways and pin the grosgrain together to form a tube. Pin and sew. The fur will need to be smoothed back and kept out of the way of the walking foot. Go slowly and try to avoid sewing over the fur as much as possible.

 

Step 2: Attach the snap tape.

Pin one side of the snap tape to the sewn grosgrain. We sewed the male side to the ruff (make sure to be consistent about which side is sewn onto the hood if you intend to switch between multiple jackets). Sew the snap tape down on both sides with a coordinating thread.

 

Step 3. Estimate position of ruff on hood and pin.

This is the trickiest step and worth spending time on the get right. Preferably the jacket would be worn in this step so you can see how it will sit around the face. A good place to start is pinning the ruff ~2" from the hood and adjusting from there. (The sewn grosgrain faces the back of the hood so the fur faces out).

Once you find the desired position of the ruff use tailors chalk, a pencil, or soluble marker to mark the location on the hood (shows on green jacket below). Unpin the ruff and pin the remaining side of the snap tape in alignment with your chalk line. Make any slight adjustments to make sure it is even on both sides.

 

Step 4: Sew snap tape to hood. Once you have the position of the snap tape determined pin and sew on both sides of the snaps with coordinating thread. We recommend pinning between each snap to keep the snap tape in exact place. Remove the pins as you sew the first side, then reattach them to sew the second side (and unpin as you go). This snap tape we used had a tendency to slide around and this kept the placement correct.

Step 5: Wear and be the envy of all your friends while out on the trails!